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Gender roles of women in literature
Representation of women in literature
Gender roles of women in literature
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An Analysis of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres tells a dark tale of a corrupt patriarchal society which operates through concealment. It is a story in which the characters attempt to manipulate one another through the secrets they possess and the subsequent revelation of those secrets. In her novel, Smiley gives us a very simple moral regarding this patriarchal society: women who remain financially and emotionally dependent on men decay; those able to break the economic and emotional chains develop as women and as hum ans. Roots of A Thousand Acres can be seen in numerous novels and plays, the most obvious of which is King Lear. The parallels are too great to ignore. Smiley is successful because she fills in so many of the gaps left open in the play. She gives us new an d different perspectives. One of the particular strengths of the novel lies in its depiction of the place of women in a predominantly patriarchal culture. In this male dominated culture, the values privileged in women include silence and subordination. Ginny is acceptable as a woman as long as she remains "oblivious" (121). She is allowed to disagree with men, contingent upon her doing so without fighting (104). Ultimately, her opinion as a woman remains irrelevant. Ginny remarks, "of course it was silly to talk about 'my po int of view.' When my father asserted his point of view, mine vanished" (176). When she makes the "mistake" of crossing her father, she is referred to as a "bitch," "whore," and "slut" (181, 185). It could be argued that many of the male characters in the novel are suffering from a type of virgin/whore syndrome. As long as the women remain docile receptacles they are "good"; when they resist or even question masculine authority, they are "bad." Rose complains, "When we are good girls and accept our circumstances, we're glad about it....When we are bad girls, it drives us crazy" (99). The women have been indoctrinated to the point that they initially buy into and accept these standards of judgem ent. The type of patriarchy described by Smiley simply serves to show the inscription of the marginalization of women by men in the novel and in our society. Another strength of the novel is its treatment of secrets and appearances. Like characters in a Lewis or Bellow novel, the characters in A Thousand Acres are more concerned with maintaining a veneer of social respectability than with addressing reality. Life, for them, becomes some kind of facade. Nearly everyone has a secret and nothing is as it seems. Our narrator tell us, "They all looked happy" (38); and later, "Most issues on a farm return to the issue of keeping up appearances" (199). Amid all of the sub-plots and mini-themes (and there are many) in A Thousand Acres, the one recurring theme which stands out is Smiley's criticism of a masculine-dominated culture. The one element clearly valued in a woman by this patriarchal society is silence. "The girls sat quietly" (95) and they are good girls. For a woman to express her own feelings in the novel can lead to harmful repressions. So it is that Ginny suppresses her voice. Her inability and unwillingness to stand up to her father, and even to Ty (in reference to the babies especially), shows that she allows herself to remain marginalized throughout much of the novel. In A Thousand Acres, Smiley tries to capture the tensions of real everyday living in her representation of a dysfunctional rural family steeped in a patriarchal tradition. She shows the effects of the unreasonableness of our patriarchal society and indi cts it in the process. Ginny is defined within a double set of cultural constraints. She is confined not only by prevailing expectations regarding social behavior but also by those governing the proper behavior of women. Reticence is an essential part of the code of feminine decorum based on the idea of woman's inherent weakness and the need to defer to and rely upon masculine strength and protection. By allowing Ginny to break the chains of reticence and flee, literally, to a new life, Smiley turns w eakness into strength as she envisions a more reasonable (and perhaps more feminized) social order. She forces us to ask what ideals we are being sacrificed to... patriotism? Maintaining appearances? Maintaining patriarchal standards? Smiley speaks for all who have been marginalized when she states (through Jess), "Maybe to you it looked like I just vanished, but I was out there" (55)!
...her seem to be behaving and influencing on young teenagers in the wrong way. For example, most of the girls out there praise themselves that they are better looking than the other. As a result, they seem to be manipulative, disrespectful and meant to others. And this creates mainly conflicts, violence in our society today.
In the book Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, there are many Strong and powerful characters. There are a few females in the book that are powerful in their own way and some are not so much. Olympia, Elly and Iphy are the females that interest me to write about. The three females are siblings. These three individuals have different roles in the book. They grow up in a family travel carnival. They all have different personalities. Each individual has a different way that show they are powerful women or eventually have some power.
To begin Bazán theme on the relationship between male and female, it similar to millennial ideas of a relationship. She expresses that women have
This quote displays Bersani's thoughts of how one's self controls the way they have been trained to think. The self is formed through a lifetime's worth of experiences, actions, lessons, and just living in the world we live in today. To abolish the self is to abolish an old way of thinking about sex and sexual identities.
Judy Brady is a well know feminist and activist during the nineties. She is also a well know writer and get publicity for her most influence essay over females and their roles as wife in “Why I want a wife”. She wrote this essay to give strength to her fellow activist in showing feminism. She also tried to show the world, how females are considered. Even though Judy’s essay talks about a long list of duties of women as a wife, her way of organizing it through ethos, pathos and logos to develop her argument , use of rhetorical devices such as irony, anaphora and her simple way of explaining main ideas to her readers, made it a successful essay.
While female solidarity and partnership is at the center of Bande de filles, throughout the film, male opposition stands as its dividing factor. The benefits of women helping and building up other women become instrumental to the progressions within Bande de filles on multiple occasions. Sciamma (the film’s director) understanding that “[s]ame-sex friendships [provided] a dedicated space for women to give each other mutual support on gender issues…[and that] these friendships provide support during the process of breaking with gender conventions… [diminishing] women’s feelings of isolation or marginality (Bachmann 177)” became pivotal to individual and the collective female growth in Bande de filles. Furthermore, female solidarity allows for individual growth and exploration in a safe and understanding space, lead and directed by women for women. Throughout
about the way that she has come to them by just looking at her, and
Girls Like Us is an intimate portrayal concerning four girls who grew up all with different ethnic backgrounds and various forms of parental guidence. Anna Chau is Vietnames with strict parents and good beliefs, Lisa Bronca is a Caucasion Catholic, De'Yonna Moore is African-American with strong goals who lives with her Grandma and Raelene Cox is a young white girl who comes from a broken home with little parental guidence. Girls Like Us shows examples of structural functionism, and conflict theory, as well as symbolic interactionalism. This movie really intersted me because I actually got to see each of these girls grow up. This film also contained implications for the science of sociology.
... middle of paper ... ... The Guerrilla Girls ploy to integrate witty comical banter helps spread the understanding of the underlying themes behind the humor. It makes it easier for the artists to connect with the audience about feminism without an aggressive and hostile approach to the work.
There is a basic code of behavior that governs female interaction, referred to in the vernacular as “girl code.” These unspoken rules are largely based on an assumption of trust and respect among the women in a particular social circle and only apply to women who are considered friends or colleagues. “Girl code” is also firmly rooted in the idea of female competition, particularly in regards to viewing males as potential suitors. A careful analysis of a few of these rules through the three main sociological perspectives will illuminate the underlying themes and meanings in the interactions of women.
Everyone needs a person to share his or her feelings. However, men and women tend to find different ways and people to express their emotions. The movie “She’s the Man” shows the theory that woman is higher in self-disclosure in general, compared with men. Same-sex friendship between men is usually less intimate than same-sex friendship between women. As a result, it is better for a man to have an intimate opposite-sex friendship to lessen his loneliness. More importantly, men should try to be more open.
Anne Bradstreet starts off her letter with a short poem that presents insight as to what to expect in “To My Dear Children” when she says “here you may find/ what was in your living mother’s mind” (Bradstreet 161). This is the first sign she gives that her letter contains not just a mere retelling of adolescent events, but an introspection of her own life. She writes this at a very turbulent point in history for a devout Puritan. She lived during the migration of Puritans to America to escape the persecution of the Catholic Church and also through the fragmentation of the Puritans into different sects when people began to question the Puritan faith.
Cross-sex friendships are becoming increasingly more popular than ever before. According to Schoonover and McEwan, men and women have complementing communication styles and this is what makes cross-sex friendships so appealing as it grows to be more accepted (Schoonover & McEwan, 2014). These complementing styles can be rewarding when maintained properly but, like with same-sex friendships, come with their own challenges. In this criticism I will be analyzing who benefits more from cross-sex friendships, which challenge for maintaining cross-sex friendships is most impactful, and what cultural or social changes can be made to make them more acceptable while easy to maintain.
They are looking for freedom and they have their own thought on love relationship. They do not want to serve their husbands; they think love is equal. For example, Esi divorced with her husband because her husband forced her to have sex with him. She believes that her husband shows no respect for her. Also, she only wants one child who is not understandable for Oko’s family, because in traditional African culture, the woman who has more children has higher social status. She does not love Oko that much, and she wants her romantic love relationship which she can have her own time developing her career while dating with someone, because career is the most important thing to Esi. Career is a way to show her ability, and she has more freedom in her job, although she may need to do the work normally done by secretary. And she met Ali, who is a self-consciously charming men and attracted to her. She is brave and positive with her love. She knows what she wants and what is not she looking
As little girls, were taught to believe that we are princesses. One day our prince will find us. He’ll be a knight with shiny armor on, and will sweep us off our feet. We been told he’ll be the man we’ll marry and have a home, with kids and other magical things. All boloney. Those same little girls, will grow up to be naive young ladies. Searching for something that 's not ideal, to the world they’re living in now. Trying after trying, with these fail relationships. Female over time, become hip to the game. Realizing their real position in the relationship world. Which, in turn, made more women open their eyes. Now after trials and tribulations, heartbreaks, and make up. Women now, have a more understanding how to play the relationship game. I was those same little girls. As a older woman, I know what to and not to tolerate, when playing the relationship games.